Ethanol plant owners given conditional approval for production

Thursday

The new owners of an unfinished ethanol plant outside Canton have been given a conditional permit to produce ethanol.

The new owners of an unfinished ethanol plant outside Canton have been given a conditional permit to produce ethanol.

Riverland Biofuels bought the plant recently after Central Illinois Energy declared bankruptcy in December. About 50 employees lost their jobs.

The plant had been started with the help of local farmers, who committed corn and money to the project. The farmers lost all their investments when the $90 million project came to and end after $130 million had been spent on it. Construction was not complete.

Plant Manager Joe Werth said Wednesday that construction will be finished in seven to eight weeks, and the plant will be operational in September.

The plant was planned to have a capacity of 37 millions of ethanol a year.

"Of all the possible outcomes there could have been, there could have been a worse one," he told the Fulton County Zoning Board of Appeals, saying the company will increase the tax base and create jobs in the county.

As a condition of the permit, the company has 90 days to complete traffic and draining studies.

The plant is almost fully staffed, Werth said, and all but 10 of the employees who were laid off after bankruptcy was declared have been rehired by the new owners.